Lone Star? Mid-engined car by Shelby

[bitzman]

I heard a guy who worked on the Shelby Lone Star, a mid-engined coupe with a 351 Cleveland and a ZF built around 1968 ,gave a speech at a Orange County Cobra club meeting recently. Does anyone know who he is? I am curious to find out the facts on that car. I heard it is on the cover of a Shelby parts catalog but only the middle of the car so it is kind of hard to see what it looks like. I saw it in person at a mechancs shop in Hollywood. I think it looked like a Honda Del Sol that was exploded like a pufffish, fat with a targa roof. It was owned by Mike Schoen who wrote the Cobra -Ferrari wars but he sold it without restoring it so I would like to hear the fate of this car, built in England why Ford turned a blind eye to it

PS this is not to be confused with the white mid-engined 351 Ford powered car shelby built in '68 or so. That was a race car. This is a street car.

[roddster]

There is a page or so about this car in the 1997 SAAC registry.

[marcocsx3121]

I not only know where it is, I've seen it as it's being restored (and somewhat reengineered) by a good, old friend. Buy me a beer and I might spill the beans.

[bitzman]

Where are you--I'll send the money for a Lone Star beer.
Seriously, can you ask the owner whether he knows if the car ever got looked at by Ford, i.e. sent to Dearborn for consideration, and if so, why not?The only thing I could find in the Shelby American magazine was in an interview of the late Al Dowd who said after he had to slide across the gas tank to get into the car, he coudn't see why anyone would want it. I was in a club that collected a car with three gas tanks , two of them in the sides, and some members reengineered the car to use only the rear tank because of that same worry, a t-bone collison while you're surrounded by gasoline!
Thanks
Bitzman

[roddster]

Whats the issue with the fuel tanks? Ain't that where it is on the original GT 40's

[marcocsx3121]

Part of the reengineering that has taken place involved the building and installation of fuel cells in place of the side-mounted tanks.

[bitzman]

At least on the original GT40 the fuel tanks were in rubber bags in a stoutly built rocker sill compartment. I don't recall any GT40s blowing up in an accident because the fuel tank was punctured, though there is a great picture of Mike Salmon driving a GT40 that some dummy forgot to close the gas cap lids on after a refuel. The gas flowed out the tanks, got to the back where the exhausts were, lit fire, and the whole car was flames from the gas caps back as he went around the entire course and pulled into his pit again so they could put the fire out.

I also am willing to bet the gas tanks on the sides of the Lone Star were in a structure that was about half the rigidity of the overbuilt steel chassied GT40

[CSX375]

Originally Posted by bitzman

. . . though there is a great picture of Mike Salmon driving a GT40 that some dummy forgot to close the gas cap lids on after a refuel. The gas flowed out the tanks, got to the back where the exhausts were, lit fire, and the whole car was flames from the gas caps back as he went around the entire course and pulled into his pit again so they could put the fire out. . .

Wow. Anyone have a picture of that, I googled for it and didn't find it in the first couple pages of gt40 pictures.